Property steeped in Major League Baseball history that the Boys & Girls Club of Hot Springs board has offered to donate to the Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission is worth an estimated $222,550 to $581,598, according to Visit Hot Springs.
The "rough estimate" of the land value was included in a memo Visit Hot Springs CEO Steve Arrison recently sent to the commission, which will decide Monday whether to accept the donation. Arrison's memo, dated April 20, recommends the commission accept the donation.
The Boys & Girls Club closed on March 2 after 75 years in operation, citing the loss of its charter from the Boys & Girls Club of America.
The BGCHS board subsequently decided to dissolve the nonprofit organization, and part of that dissolution includes splitting the baseball fields from the club building and donating the land and the building to separate entities.
According to a memo to the Hot Springs Board of Zoning Adjustment, which today will consider approving a variance related to the lot split, the property on West Belding includes multiple baseball fields of various sizes, restroom facilities, a concessions building, greenspaces and off-street parking.
The club building includes administrative offices, basketball courts, recreation facilities, meeting rooms, concessions and maintenance facilities.
On April 13, the BGCHS and Champion Christian College boards of directors announced a plan to reopen the club building by next month, with Champion reviving the after-school care the Boys & Girls Club offered. The BGCHS board had already voted to donate the property to the ad commission.
Arrison, in his memo to the commission, said the total property consists of 16.555 acres of land, of which about 14.755 acres would be donated to the commission, depending on the final lot split.
The remaining acreage includes the property where the building is located and would be donated to the college, along with the parking lot directly in front of the building, Arrison said.
All of the land to either side of, and behind the building, would be donated to the ad commission.
"We will have an easement to use their parking lot just as they will have an easement to use our parking facilities," Arrison said.
While there were not any sales to compare to this transaction, the land value estimates per acre of five same or similar properties in the area range from a low of $15,083 per acre to a high of $39,417 per acre, which makes the range of the donation $222,550 to $581,598, he said in the memo.
If the commission accepts the donation it will own the property "free and clear," Arrison said, with a single stipulation from the original deed back from the land transfer in 1946. That stipulation requires that the property "shall be used forever for the sole and exclusive purpose of maintaining thereon a public playground and/or public recreational center."
The property is steeped in the city's Major League Baseball spring training history, and is the site of several stops on the Hot Springs Historic Baseball Trail, which was created by the ad commission.
Once known as Majestic Field, the property was developed in 1909 as the Boston Red Sox training center and was also used by the Cincinnati Reds and Brooklyn Dodgers, according to one of the historic markers. Babe Ruth, Cy Young, Tris Speaker, Smoky Joe Wood and other Major Leaguers trained there.
Jackie Robinson played an exhibition game at the location, then known as Jaycee Field, on Oct. 22, 1953, according to another marker, which terms it "one of the most important events in Hot Springs history."
Local on 04/25/2018